Arsenal Medical, a leader in the development of biomaterials-based devices for underserved conditions, today announced enrollment of the first patient with the company’s investigational NeoCast™ embolic biomaterial.
NeoCast was purpose-built to address the limitations of existing embolic products for indications where deep penetration into the microvasculature is desired. Developed with funding from the National Cancer Institute, NeoCast leverages shear-thinning science to preferentially reach the smallest vessels and stop blood flow to tumors and injured or diseased tissues. The resulting biomaterial is easy to deploy and yields consistent performance, while eliminating harsh solvents commonly found in current liquid embolics.
The patient was successfully embolized as part of the NeoCast first-in-human clinical trial, an open-label, multicenter study. This study is evaluating the early safety and feasibility of NeoCast for the embolization of a patient’s brain tumor to facilitate surgical removal.
“With the first patient treated, we confirmed that the material characteristics exhibited in preclinical studies translated well to clinical practice. NeoCast was responsive, controlled, and highly visible during injection, penetrating deep into and occluding the target vessels”, said the study’s primary investigator Monash Health Neurointerventionalist, Lee-Anne Slater, MBBS MMed FRANZCR. “NeoCast is a promising solution for neurovascular applications that would benefit from penetration into the microvasculature such as chronic subdural hematomas and hypervascular tumors.”
“We appreciate the hard work of Dr. Slater and our other clinical investigators to enable this important milestone,” said Upma Sharma, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Arsenal Medical. “This successful deployment of NeoCast demonstrates our vision of harnessing the power of materials to build groundbreaking medical devices. We look forward to completing the first-in-human study and confirming the potential of our materials to address areas of disease or injury that have previously been inaccessible or untreatable.”
Arsenal Medical is a clinical-stage company that develops purpose-built biomaterials to solve challenging and underserved medical problems. Our lead products target neurovascular and trauma conditions. It was founded by academic luminaries Robert Langer and George Whitesides and serial entrepreneur-investor Carmichael Roberts, who shared a vision for how innovative materials can transform medical devices. For more information visit www.arsenalmedical.com or follow Arsenal on LinkedIn.